


Hacked (II)

by lactoria



Series: Hacked [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-15
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-02-04 17:00:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1786507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lactoria/pseuds/lactoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hello, Trickster.  You have a lot of explaining to do."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hacked (II)

Kankri Vantas has never been angrier in his entire life, and that includes the many sweeps he's lost track of living non-life in bubbles.

He's tolerated many an injustice and endured so much frothing ignorance, has fought with Porrim so viciously that he thought he'd lose his temper and has screamed so loudly in frustration inside his recuperacoon that he coughed up sopor well into the following day.

And even then nothing has stirred such intense antipathy within him that he felt compelled toward violence.

Karkat had been pussyfooting around him for days which for all intents and purposes is normal protocol for a troll who is trying to avoid him; he's used to it.

But Karkat isn't avoiding him for the usual reasons; he's not his normal hostile snippy self when Kankri attempts to engage him in discussion.

Quite the contrary.

He blushes, averts his eyes and speedily backs up every time Kankri advances. This is not like the hotheaded Karkat Vantas he is accustomed to pursuing. Karkat is acting meek, almost shy, and prevaricates whenever Kankri tries to ask him direct questions pertaining to his odd behavior.

Usually Karkat tells him off quite colorfully and elbows him out of his way.

Kankri is confused and perturbed by this unsettling change in Karkat, and he's not about to let this go on and risk driving a rift between them.

It's unorthodox and it's certainly not how he operates, but since Karkat doesn't respond to words Kankri pins him up against the wall and holds him tight until he talks.

And Karkat does indeed talk, eager to put an end to the proximity that is undoubtedly mutually uncomfortable.

"Why are you demanding information out of ME? You're the one who fucking instigated!!! Are you seriously pretending that didn't happen?!"

Kankri's face falls and he lets his dancestor go, but he keeps him pinioned in the cage of his arms, hands plastered palm-flat to the wall on either side of Karkat's head.

He's got a sinking feeling in his gut, the sense of ill omen churning.

"Tell me everything."

The blush returns with a vengeance along with that same demure front which initially garnered Kankri's concern.

It takes Karkat a long time to spit it out, carefully selecting his words while determinedly eluding eye contact.

"...I knew it couldn't have been you, but it sounded JUST like you!!" Karkat furiously rubs at his fevered face and groans, muttering:

"I can't fucking believe this."

Kankri's mortified for so many reasons.

And feeling just as awkward as his pupil.

"He said he was you, but... not you... he said you were hacked--"

" _Fuck_." The elder Vantas abruptly pulls away, leaving Karkat to slump against the wall, perplexed.

Kankri knows exactly who got to his descendant.

He immediately blames himself for having not been more attentive, for not keeping a more vigilant eye on Karkat.  He is his ward afterall; he could have prevented this from happening.

But there will be plenty of time later for self-depreciation.  Right now he needs to confront this problematic issue head-on and make sure justice is served.

With no warning, Kankri seizes Karkat by the wrist, who yelps out in protest as he finds himself being dragged along after the older Vantas.

"Kankri, what the FUCK? If you're thinking of doing something, don't. Do you hear me? We're not--this is not--this--" He's getting himself all worked up for nothing as Kankri shuts Karkat into his hive, sealing the door with a combination code.

"Kankri!!" He beats his fists against the door only to be answered with a firm order.

"Stay inside."

"Fuck that noise. Are you keeping me in here for round two?!"

"Karkat!!" He snaps, irritable and put off. "For once it is you who needs to _shut up and listen_." Again, not how he operates, but Karkat's stunned silence is encouraging so he takes it as a sign he can extrapolate without further interruption.

"You were accosted not by me, but by a trickster version of myself. This anomaly absorbs other iterations of myself from the bubbles. He is absolutely abhorrent, disrespectful and..." He pulls a face he's thankful Karkat can't see. " _Lascivious._ "

"Then let me out and I will tear this candy-ass prick a new waste chute."

"No.  That is exactly what he wants I am afraid."  Kankri sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose.

He's done his best to steer clear of interaction with  _any_ trickster; they are irrational aberrations of their original selves, taking no value in words and acting solely on impulse.

However, taking advantage of his dancestor crosses the line.

"I apologize Karkat, but I need you to remain inside until I return."

He turns and forces himself to walk away from his descendant's enraged screams.

He will thank him later once he's cooled down and Kankri has sorted this imbroglio out.

But for now, Kankri must face himself, and it's not going to be pretty.

He knows exactly where to locate tricksters; they play along the perimeters of the dream bubbles where existence is unstable and glitching is commonplace.

Boldly, the steps through the ripple and is instantly bombarded by his trickster-mirror.

"Hello, dear sweet chaste me," he coos as his arms slither around Kankri's waist, his entire body sinuous.  He wraps himself about Kankri before he can even respond.

"Hello, Trickster."  Kankri barely suppresses his disgust over being touched so liberally.  He extends his hands and pushes his crazed self back as much as he would go given their entanglement.

"You have a lot of explaining to do."

The pixelated double licks his sugar-speckled lips, eyes drooping seductively.

"Talk is cheap, but we always knew you were a fucking wuss!"

The trickster's hands fist in Kankri's hair, eliciting a sharp gasp as Kankri recoils, knowing there's really no where he can go.

"There is nothing cheap about talk; talk is invaluable, but you'd know nothing about that would you?  Do you honestly think pawning your body off on others will gain their respect?"

"Respect?"  Shrill laughter.  The hands tighten, nails biting into the sensitive scalp around horns.  Kankri hisses, the contact startling--his lack of exposure making him that much more sensitive.

Is this how Karkat felt?

"You will  _never_ touch my ancestor again."

Dead eyes meet their matching set, the trickster's spindly frame floating down, his long legs twisting themselves around Kankri's hips.

He seems to be considering him for a moment, the moment long enough to boost Kankri's hopes.

And then he giggles, loud and uproariously, and Kankri's hopes are dashed just like that.

"Why is that?  Do you want him all to yourself?!  What have you got to offer?  You won't even kiss him much less feed him your bulge!!!"

He pries his hand out of Kankri's now-mussed hair and roughly cups his clothed bulge.

"Pity too.  It's such a delicious piece of meat!"

Kankri shudders, disgust and desire warring in his pan, as he claws at his trickster-self's sweater; it's a hideous shade of pink.

There's not a single touch of red on him.

The trickster is undaunted, his grin devilish, eyes white but glowing; he looks Kankri over hungrily, leans in and whispers into his ear.

"But Karkat's tastes like cherry syrup.  You're missing out.  But what can you expect from such a deeply repressed wiggler bitch?!"

That's all the abuse Kankri can stand.

He hasn't tapped into his strife specibus since he was alive, but he's desperate.  Out from it he draws a massive scythe, blindly swiping at his glitching iteration.

He hasn't fought a day in his life, but he's not alive and Karkat's modesty is on the line.

And something about getting physical with himself fills him with a strange and powerful rush of adrenaline he can't quell with words alone.

And it seems neither can the trickster culprit who is laughing where he hangs upside-down in mid-air.

"Are you serious Kankz?  Kranki?  KANNY?!?  You can barely lift the thing!!!  Why not pour all of that anger of yours into putting me in my place?!"

He's got a point.

"No more TALK, let's solve this with a good hard fuck in Karkat's honor!!"

Kankri never knew seeing red could mean so much to him as he cuts through the air at his heinous alter-ego.  He wants him gone.

His very presence corrode's Kankri's self-control, pollutes his thoughts and makes him wonder,

_what if._

_What if we solved this his way?_


End file.
